Kinshasa was a village on the south bank of the Congo when Stanley passed through in 1877. He returned in 1881 and established Leopoldville on the banks of contemporary Kintambo and Ngaliema. A post was opened upriver at Kinshasa in 1883. In 1923 Leopoldville was named the capital, comprising both Kinshasa and Leopoldville, established at Kalina (now Gombe), while "old" Leopoldville remained the capital of the Province. The Leopoldville-Kinshasa agglomeration was renamed Kinshasa in 1966.

TRANSLATE

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Last
week Surbana International Consultants of Singapore signed a contract with the
Kinshasa Provincial Government to provide master planning services, including a
Regional Structure Plan covering the 9,900 km2 extent of the Province and a
detailed master plan for the capital (2500 km2).This is the firm’s largest master planning contract to
date.A privatization spin-off of
Singapore’s Housing and Development Board, the company has prepared master plans
for Kigali and residential sub-division plans in Nigeria and has broad
experience in commercial, industrial, health care, hospitality and aviation
projects.

Surbana's vision for Kigali, Rwanda

Urban
planning in Kinshasa has a long history, beginning with District Commissioner
Moulaert’s platting the cité streets and residential lots in 1912 (See Apr. 30, 2011), establishment of neutral zones
separating Congolese and European neighborhoods in the 1920s (See July 31, 2011), District Commmissioner Dendale’s
creation of the “Nouvelle Cité” in the 1940s, the ambitious Office des Cités
Africaines construction in the 1950s (See Sep. 30, 2011) and the
optimistic plans and strategies elaborated by the French-supported Mission
Francaise d’Urbanisme (MFU) in the 1960s which led to creation of the Bureau
d’Etudes et d’Amenagements Urbains (BEAU) in 1973.In 1967 the government acknowledged the phenomenal growth of
the capital by creating the 24 Communes that comprise the City-Province today. At the same time, the MFU produced a
comprehensive development plan for the City. The plan was only haphazardly implemented and immediately
overtaken by events. Mobutu was only interested in cherry-picking certain
aspects, while Commune and traditional authorities platted and sold raw land in
a checkerboard, sprawling pattern without provision for attendant streets and
storm drainage, installing utilities or inclusion of community infrastructure
such as commercial zones, education or cultural space.

Urban Growth in Kinshasa 1950-1975 (Flouriot, 2005)

More
recently, the Kabila government has invested in reconstructing and upgrading
the urban infrastructure inherited from the colonial period.Major arteries include Blvd. du 30e
Juin and the Avenue Mondjiba extension, Blvd. Patrice Lumumba, and Avenues Poids
Lourds, Huileries and Pierre Mulele (Liberation). Joint ventures to develop
residential subdivisions in vacant (and not so vacant) sites are springing up around
the city (See Mar. 20, 2015).

Ave. Pierre Mulele at the Universite Protestante du Congo in Commune de Lingwala

In
2013, the Agence Francaise de Développement contracted the French planning firm
Groupe Huit to develop a plan for the Hotel de Ville (City Hall).The plan (Schéma d’orientation
stratégique de l’agglomération kinoise – SOSAK) rolled-out in August 2014 covers
a 15-year planning horizon to 2030 and prioritizes expanding the street network
and public transit to access new commercial and residential areas for a growing
population, and open up enclaved neighborhoods. SOSAK would further upgrade
existing quartiers, bring land use
practice in harmony with the environment and promote the development
recreational and cultural zones throughout the capital.

The General Development Plan would consolidate existing infrastructure and develop new areas northeast towards Maluku

One
element of the companion Development Plan (Plan Particulier d’Amenagement) for
the northern section of the city would eliminate the last vestiges of the second Neutral Zone, which includes Ndolo Airport and Camp Kokolo.The 1967 MFA plan proposed relocating a
new town center there, taking the pressure off Blvd. 30e Juin and Commune de la
Gombe, which is certainly acute today.Although Mobutu erected some monumental projects, including the Palais
du Peuple and Stade des Martyrs, these were not part of a coherent vision for
the area, nor intentionally integrated with the urban fabric of the surrounding
area.SOSAK would close Ndolo
Airport, one of my favorite urbanization projects (See. Jan. 27, 2014), allowing Blvd. Lumumba to reach Blvd. 30e Juin at the Gare
Centrale, while intersecting with an extended Avenue Triomphal, which would
become a major east-west arterial paralleling 30e Juin. Most of the development
opportunity zones in the Plan are located along Ave. Triomphal.

In
choosing yet another planning firm, the Kinshasa provincial authorities seem
more intent on “planning to plan” than grappling with the knotty challenges of
implementation.There is so much
public and private investment occurring in Kinshasa at this time that would
contribute to realization of the SOSAK framework and become more enduring
assets for today’s and future Kinois.No matter what final plan is adopted, the government
must today confront the need for political will to implement such a
transformative vision of a future Kinshasa and transparently enforce existing
land use and land tenure regulations.